Alan and Pat live and work in Bordeaux. Alan is a pastor and Pat was a nurse. Now we work with UFM worldwide. Read on! (If you'd like to know what took us to Bordeaux, then start with the archives from September 2004)

Monday, May 09, 2011

Preaching for the Chinese

I worked out that if we preached once a month, and if I interleaved with Dik, who'll do a different series, and if I spent roughly two messages per chapter of Mark, it would take me roughly 32 years to cover the whole book. Since the Chinese students stay on average for slightly less than that (!) another approach would be needed.

I pondered Christianity Explored. I reflected on the excellent "King's Cross" that I am reading. I perused the structure that we learnt for the Mark Experiment. I thought "Eureka, that's it !"

So on Saturday I preached on the introduction to Mark and on the fact that the Christian message is Good News about Jesus Christ announced by God over all the history of the world.

I kept it short and snappy, knowing that either François or Andy would be translating into Mandarin for me.

I overdid it. I forgot that Mandarin is a very economical language and that long sentences that drag on and on in English become just one syllable in Mandarin.

Still, better be too short than too long. And it left time for some very good questions at the end.

Thanks for your prayers. Now the question is when I can preach again, given that I am away in June and the last two Saturdays of May are also already taken...